Amethysts and Emeralds
by Radioactive Rubber Duck
Summary: RetasuxPai fic, set about 4 months after the series ends. Pai returns to Earth and for some reason, the first thing he wants to see is Retasu. Rated T just incase
1. Pai's feelings

**I've been waiting to right a PaixRetasu fanfic for a while now, but I've never got round to it until now. Which is a pity really, I love this couple so much!**

**Anyway, this story is going to be set several months after the end of the series, and though PaixRetasu is definitely the main couple in this, there will probably be a tiny bit of others in it, probably IchigoxKisshu and PuddingxTaruto.**

**The title probably isn't so good, but oh well, that title isn't that important right? *looks worried***

Out of all the mews, she had stood out the most, somehow, she had seemed more important than the others, like the single person who really deserved happiness on that planet full of useless, selfish humans.

Pai did not know when he had begun to think of Retasu that way, but perhaps that was because as far as he was concerned, it had never started at all.

It was almost completely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it, but, however slightly, Pai had noticed Retasu than any of the other humans. They had always just been "humans", and the mews had always just been "those annoying mews". But he remembered the porpoise girl, and when he learned her name, he remembered it.

When he had fought her in Tokyo bay, at the time when he created the pollutant chimera, there was something she had said to him.

"You also have something important, something you want to protect!"

He had responded by saying that she should not compare him to humans. This was what he thought, that humans were annoying, stupid creatures, and to be compared to one was an insult.

But Pai was not stupid, he was far from it, and he knew that the humans, especially the blonde one floating in the water behind him, thought the same of his race, that they were the ones in the wrong, the cruel ones doing what they did without reason. So what Retasu had said was the same as if he had admitted that the mews were also fighting to protect what they loved, wasn't it? And she would have had as much right to react as he had, and say that the aliens were foolish for comparing her to them. But she didn't, she understood. She understood much better than anyone else did.

But that did not change anything.

He had to do everything he could to protect his people. The understanding of one person was insignificant, it would take so much more to make Pai choose a different path.

And something did happen. Right at the end, after he had even gone to the length of killing his friend and comrade, he saw his master Deep Blue for what he really was and made the choice to help the mews. And it cost him his life.

In those few brief seconds before he died, he'd looked back at the mews, and seen Retasu's face, her shining emerald eyes wide with shock and fear, and he'd remembered what she had said to him in the sea.

Moments later he was dead.

Was it coincidence that out of the five people there, his gaze had moved to her?

No, it wasn't.

But Pai had not thought at all about that once he his life was restored by the mew aqua. He and the other two aliens could save they're planet, Deep Blue was gone, and nothing else mattered, either in they're world or his.

But, months after they're former masters defeat and they're return home, even though Pai was happier, and more comfortable than he had ever been now that they're planet was slowly becoming a much more inhabitable place, there was something wrong. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life there. Kisshu and Taruto felt the same, after experiencing an adventure like theirs, no one could possibly agree to living a normal life, as the mews had already learned.

So what better for the three aliens to do, than go back to Earth? Kisshu had never stopped obsessing over that pink cat mew, and even though Taruto had plenty of friends where he was, none of them could ever be as friendly, or understand how he felt better than the monkey girl had.

So, 4 months after the mews had thought them gone forever, Pai, Kisshu and Taruto returned to Earth.

Pai, waking up on his second morning of being back on the planet he had once attempted to invade, thought how strange it was being here now, no thoughts of destruction or fighting, just happiness and curiosity.

Pushing back the purple blanket and stepping out onto the cold floor, he saw something green lying under the bed. He bent down to pull it out, and realised what it was.

A doll that had rolled away from the stall when the mews had been participating in a sale near the café. He had just teleported into that area when the round, squashy green thing had come rolling towards him. Taking it back to the ship, he had left it in his room, it had something to do with those annoying mews, and could give him ideas for future chimera animals.

If he'd had any other motives for taking the doll, then he had hidden them from even himself.

Of course, Pai had always chosen purpose over his actual feelings, and Deep Blue wouldn't appreciate him possessing something like that for any other reasons than being able to destroy the mews.

Then, looking down at the doll in his hand, Pai felt that he wanted to go and see its maker.

Teleporting to the café, he found himself standing in front of a pink sign. It read "CLOSED." Well, perhaps it was closed for the day, if it was no longer open at all then the building would probably no longer be there.

On several more occasions Pai attempted to see Retasu, and for all but the last he was unsuccessful.

But when he did see her, her beautiful azure orbs reflected another person.

Ryou Shirogane.

**Please review and tell me what you think! I know this chapter is a little short, but the others will be longer, I promise!**

**Also, I know there aren't any of those grey line things in here, but thats because they don't seem to be wroking for be at the moment ^^;  
**


	2. Confession and Rejection

**Next chapter now, I'm going to try and update at least once a day! It made me really happy that people like this ^.^**

**And this chapter may seem a bit RetasuxRyou-ish...but it kinda had to, ah well, hopefully she'll soon be where she belongs, with Pai!**

A few drops of light rain dripped from the sky, making little dark dots on the otherwise dry ground.

"Aww, I'm gonna get soaked now!" Ichigo complained loudly. "I wish I'd brought an umbrella with me, Minto, please can I share yours, please?!"

"No, you can't." Minto replied, twirling her navy blue umbrella above her head. "You should have brought your own."

"I slept in, I didn't have time to get it!" Ichigo shouted back, covering her head with her arms in a vain attempt to protect herself from the falling droplets .

"I wonder who's fault that was." Minto said sarcastically, pulling her umbrella away from Ichigo, who was trying to force her way underneath it.

"But the rain is FUN na no da!!" Purin yelled back at them as she practically bounced along the path several metres ahead of the others.

While the Minto and Ichigo argued, and Purin skipped through the piles of yellow and brown leaves, Zakuro and Retasu said nothing, Zakuro, because she never said much anyway, and Retasu because she was thinking.

Perhaps she should go and see the leaves, they were so pretty colors this time of year, it would be great to go by the park and have a look at them all.

No, she was just making excuses, she had too stay, this time she would do it.

_I'll do it tomorrow..._She thought, _Perhaps then I'll be more ready..._ No, she'd been saying that to herself for nearly two weeks, this time she would do it. Clutching the side of her bag tightly, she turned back towards the café doors. If she didn't do it soon then she never would, it was probably best to just get it over with.

"Retasu? Aren't you coming?" Ichigo called back to her, having given up her efforts to get under the shelter of Minto's umbrella.

"Um, I-I left something in the café!!" Retasu called back, blushing slightly. "I'll b-be out in a minute!"

"Shall we wait here for you then?" Ichigo asked, smiling.

"Oh, n-no, you go ahead!" Retasu said nervously as she walked quickly back into the café.

_Well, now I have to do it...I suppose it's a good thing though, I'd of put this off forever otherwise, and I really do want Shirogane-san to know how I feel about him..._Her face turned pink as she blushed.

"U-um, Akasaka-san? Where is Shirogane-san? I-I...want to talk to him..." She asked Keiichiro as he walked past carrying a stick of plates.

He smiled. "Yes, he's just upstairs."

"Okay, Th-thank you!" She almost shouted back before running up the staircase and almost tripping over several times before she reached the top step. The tip of her shoe caught on a piece of wood that stuck out, and she came crashing to the floor right in front of a door, which seconds later opened to reveal Ryou, standing there and looking down at her with a confused expression.

"Minto, do you think Retasu will actually tell Shirogane she likes him now?!" Ichigo asked excitedly once the café doors had closed again.

"Yay!!" Purin yelled, buried up to her waist in a massive pile of dead leaves. "Retasu onee-chan and Shirogane onii-chan will be married na no da!!" She flung her arms up in the air, scatting leaves across the pavement.

Ichigo sweatdropped. "Um, Purin, I don't think that will happen!"

"Why not?" she asked, looking sad. "You and Aoyama onii-chan will be married one day, so why not them too na no da??"

"Ichigo and Aoyama may not even get married." Zakuro said, speeding up slightly to walk next to the other three mews. "And to be honest, I doubt Retasu and Shirogane have much chance of being together at all."

"Onee-sama?"

"Its obvious he doesn't like her in that way Minto, I just hope that Retasu will be able to get over it when she finds that out."

None of the mews looked cheerful any more, even Purin, who seemed to only ever seem sad more a few seconds, looked upset. They all knew that Retasu's love for Ryou would never be returned, but still, it had been nice to hope that he would. What Zakuro said had reminded them that hope was all it really was.

"S-sorry!!" Retasu shouted, bending down with a cloth to wipe up the spilled tea. Keiichiro had brought some in only a few minutes earlier, and her hands had been shaking so badly that she had been unable to hold onto the cup.

"Don't worry, I'll clean it up later." said Ryou, putting down his own cup. "Just sit back down."

"O-okay." said Retasu, sounding more nervous than she had in her entire life. She sat back down at the small table, looking across it at Ryou.

"I-I n-need to tell you something..." she said, looking back down at the table.

"I know, but what is it?"

"I-I..." she was quiet for a few seconds before trying again. "I-I....that is, I w-well...um...I...." She stopped again, her face scarlet.

"Just spit it out, okay? Honestly, I don't understand how you can be so nervous all the time." he sipped his tea and stared at her with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

He could be cold at times, but then, if Retasu disliked this, and wished he could act more caring, then she wouldn't love him for who he was...as far as she was concerned, it was his flaws that made him perfect. However little sense that seemed to make, she understood it.

"I..." Why was this so difficult for her to do? It seemed so simple for the characters in books that she'd read. She didn't even know why she couldn't say it, in books it was always because the characters feared rejection, wasn't that everyone's reason? She knew that there was plenty of chance he wouldn't like her back, so why, why did she have to be so terrified of saying this??

Looking back up again, her eyes met his, and somehow, that gave her the strength to talk.

"Shirogane-san, I have been putting this off for a long time now...but really, I know that I can't keep it to myself forever, I always knew you'd have to find out sooner or later...so I'm going to say it know...Shirogane-san...I...love you."

Three words, three, small, simple words. Yet they had so much power in this world, even the power to kill, or save a persons life. As she thought this, Retasu continued to look at Ryou, wondering what his response would be.

Ryou put down his cup, and looked at the blushing girl in front of him, his expression serious.

"Retasu...I think that you are a brilliant person, you are clever, more so than any of the others, you are kind, and you are strong. You are also beautiful. There are plenty of reasons that I should love you also, but...well...I don't. To put it simply." He frowned, and looked back at his tea. "And...if that's all you have to say, then, would you mind leaving?"

Staring for a few seconds, Retasu nodded.

"Y-yes, Shirogane-san...I w-will go now..." She stood up quickly and turned away, her vision beginning to blur as her eyes filled with tears. She felt stupid for crying, she shouldn't, she knew that he might reject her, so why did it hurt so much?

Not wanting to seem like she was overreacting, she walked towards the door at what she very much hoped was a normal speed, and pulled it open. Once she was out she ran down the stairs, almost falling down head first as tears clouded her vision. She ran as fast as she could through the café, no noticing Keiichiro, who stared at her in complete confusion, and then out of the pink front doors into the cold autumn air.

After that she stopped running, knowing that if she did she would fall and hurt herself, but continued to walk as fast as she could towards the park. As she walked, she stopped thinking about what Ryou had said, or about anything at all really, and just let her feet carry her across the grass towards the little stream that ran through the field. She'd stopped crying by now, but her eyes were still watery.

She came to a spot hidden by trees, she came here to think or read sometimes, knowing that she wouldn't be disturbed. But now it was not just peace she wanted, she wanted to not be seen by anyone, so she could think over what had happened in peace.

Sitting cross legged on the wet grass, she replayed the conversation in her mind, and tried her best not to cry. But, whenever someone tries to hold back their tears, it never seems to work, and tiny droplets of salty water trickled down her face.

_I still love you Ryou...though...I just wish now that I didn't..._

Only minutes after thinking this, Retasu's eyes closed and her mind went blank, tired from crying, and lulled to sleep by the sound of her own sobs.

**I felt so sorry for Retasu while writing this, well, hopefully next chapter should be a little more cheerful.**


	3. Moonlight

**Hmm, not sure if I like this chapter so much, the first bit doesn't seem so good...**

**Oh, and I forgot to do this earlier, but I'm gonna now and it goes for the whole story, because I can't be bothered to keep doing it. Also, I would like to say that semi-colons will probably not be used in this, because I don't really know how to use them ^^;**

**I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew or any of the characters in this story, if I did, Ryou would have kissed Keiichiro and the aliens would never have returned their planet.**

Retasu woke up several hours after having fallen asleep.

The first thing she was aware of was loud breathing behind her, and a strong smell of alcohol in the air. She shifted her position and was about get up when whoever was behind her spoke. She froze.

"Well, What 'ave we 'ere?" Said a deep, slightly raspy voice, it sounded slurred. Whoever the person was, they were almost definitely drunk. "Aren't you pretty?" They said, and Retasu felt a hand on her shoulder. Screaming, she slapped the hand away and spun around to face its owner, almost falling into the stream as she did so.

"P-please, don't hurt me!!" She screamed at them, almost crying. It was scary, even if she'd fought aliens to save the earth, nothing like this had happened to her before, and she was terrified.

"Hurt you?" Retasu could now see the one speaking. Though the darkness made his face hard to see, she could tell that he had a beard, and was not really that old. She thought he was probably homeless, despite the fact he'd managed to afford to get this badly drunk. "Why would I 'urt you?" He asked.

Retasu's only response was to whimper quietly, and scream again as she felt the same hand that had been placed on her shoulder swiftly force its way up her shirt. A low chuckle escaped the mans lips.

"G-get off me, please!!" she yelled, trying to knock his hand away, but he was so much older and stronger than her.

_God, what am I thinking, how stupid must I be to not have done this straight away... _She thought, silently berating herself for not having thought of this immediately.

"Mew Mew Lettuce!! Meta-!"

The hand that was not up her shirt flew through the cold night air and knocked the pendant out of her hands. It landed in the water with a quiet _plop_.

"Come on, don't play games." The man chuckled and kissed Retasu roughly on the mouth, his breath smelled absolutely disgusting. "GET OFF, GET OFF ME PLEASE!! She yelled, tears streaming down her face.

She struggled against the man, hitting him hard in the chest, but none of it seemed to have very much impact on him.

Suddenly, she heard hurried footsteps, and voices coming from the field. Finally, it seemed that somebody had heard her frantic screams and come to help whoever it was in danger.

The man on top of her stood up quickly and stumbled drunkenly out through the trees, shouting to the people who were out there.

"Somebody got 'urt! I 'eard screamsh!" He yelled to them, his voice slurring. Obviously, however drunk he was, he still knew how to act to keep himself out of trouble. "Perraps over 'ere!" he shouted, stumbling towards another part of the field and pointing shakily. Yes, he did seem to know what to do very well...maybe he knows from experience...

Retasu hoped very much that wasn't the case, it was bad enough that she'd had to go through that, it was horrible to think that the man might of harassed others in the same way.

Though that horrible man was gone now, she could still hear other voices.

"Perhaps we have a look through there."

"Yeah, he must have been there for some reason."

"Don't be silly, he's drunk for god's sake, he was probably just wandering about with absolutely no clue where he was."

"Yes, but it should be worth checking."

"Okay then, fine. We'll have a look."

Retasu began stand up, and tried to call out to them, but a sudden pain in her chest sent her toppling backwards into the rushing black water.

The loud splash brought the group of people running back towards where she had been lying only seconds previously.

Clutching her chest, she lay in the water, only half of her face covered by the shallow stream. Once the pain had subsided slightly, she looked upwards, expecting to see faces looking down at her, but all that was in front of her was blackness. She remembered with horror that a ledge of earth hung over the edges of the water, and that she must be underneath that. The pain of what she assumed must be a broken rib prevented her from yelling out to the people that she was there, and her quiet whimpers were drowned out by the sound of running water. Salty tears fell again down her face as she heard the footsteps fade into silence, her chance of rescue was gone.

And as she lay there in the stream, feeling broken and hopeless, for the first time since she joined the mews, Retasu thought about how unfair life really was.

A line of shining silver light made its way across the otherwise pitch black water, reflecting the massive, beautiful moon in the dark sky above.

Pai sat by the small river, his dark eyes closed, listening to the constant rush of water. It was never going to end, the same sound would be there forever, right until the end of the world. Somehow, it seemed calming, and helped him to think more clearly.

He had teleported down to earth for this reason, peace. Leaving behind Taruto, who had discovered online gaming, and Kisshu, who had discovered DIY, he had found a small river, barely more than a stream, not so far from where the café the mew mews had worked at was.

It was so loud in the ship, with Taruto and Kisshu both talking at the same time, and the beeps and whirs made by the machinery.

If he was anyone else, Pai would probably have been able to stay back there and carry on with what he was doing. But, being Pai, and not somebody else, he couldn't.

He had always understood perfectly what he felt, and why.

He felt slightly light-headed and unable to concentrate, this was because he was hungry and had eaten nothing but an apple and a grape in the past day. He felt irritated, this was because Taruto had been singing the same three lines of song for the past hour and a half, and now he couldn't get it out of his head. He felt tired, this was because he'd been working on the computer for nearly 24 hours.

It was the way he was, feelings were not that complicated, they had an obvious explanation, this was the way it had always been for him.

But now his head felt heavy, but he was not tired, and there was something bothering him, but as to what it was, he was clueless. This was beginning to drive him insane, and so he had gone down to Earth for some peace and quiet, and to try and figure out his emotions.

But he had realised that it was much easier to just listen to the water, and forget most of what you felt instead.

It had still been daylight when he arrived at the river, but as he had sat there, the sun went down behind the trees and the minutes became hours. With his eyes closed, Pai could see nothing, and when all he could hear was the rushing of water and the sound of his own breathing, each minute seemed the same as the last, and for all he knew, the hours that had past could just have been a single minute.

So, when he returned to his senses fully and opened his eyes to the darkness, he was really quite confused.

Preparing to teleport, he took one last look at the bright, star filled sky, and the water below it, but something gold caught his eye. Something....familiar.

Floating effortlessly down towards the object, he plucked it out of the water and examined it. It was a gold pendant, one of the ones the mews had worn. It hung from several intertwined green threads, Retasu's...how he recognised it as hers' he didn't know, but it was not something he thought about for more than a split second.

Well...it would be cruel not to return it to her now that they were no longer enemies, best to just leave by the café the next day.

But...she wouldn't have just lost something as important as this so easily, the must have been reason it was no longer in her possession.

But then, if she was in a fight, then the rest of the mews would there too help her if she was in a any sort of trouble.

Just then, another thought occurred to Pai....what if she was on her own, what if the reason she was in trouble had nothing to do with the mews...there were plenty of humans who could be just as dangerous...

No, there were also humans who helped, she wasn't stupid, she could fight others off, or call for help.

Why was he even thinking that? She might not even be in trouble! What was the point in worrying about it so much, its not like it was anything of his concern anyway.

But when he returned to the ship, he found he could still not sleep, constantly wondering if Retasu was alright. And when he finally did manage to drift off, he slept uneasily and woke several times in the night.

**Please tell me what you think of this chapter, I don't think I did so well with it, so I'd love to know how I could improve!**


	4. Halloween!

**Sorry I was so late updating, I was at a party on Halloween, and last night my internet got turned off! But to make up for that there will be 2 chapters today! And this chapter is a bit longer than the others, so hopefully that will make up for the lateness...**

Two hours.

Two whole hours since the time Pai usually got up.

It was rare that he slept in, an when he did, it usually annoyed him very much.

But this time, there were other things on his mind than the time, he still couldn't stop thinking about whether or not Retasu was alright.

He shook his head to clear it and walked through to the room where he assumed Kisshu and Taruto would be. He'd teleported straight into his bedroom when he returned from the river last night, and had no idea what state they were in.

Taking a deep breath, he entered the room cautiously.

Taruto was still in the exact same position he'd been when he left the previous day, sat perfectly still in mid-air, staring almost unblinkingly at the computer in front of him. His eye's were wide, and he twitched from time to time. It looked like he'd had even less sleep than Pai, probably none at all.

Suddenly, several large letters appeared on the screen.

They spelled: TARUTOTHECANDYKING997 HAS JUST GROWN A LEVEL. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 72, NEW WEAPON UNLOCKED.

And the words were replaced by a drawing of a sword with jewels set into it. Pai supposed that it must be the weapon which had been unlocked.

"Must. G-get. to. Level. 80..." Taruto said shakily, staring at the screen. It had returned to the way it was when Pai had entered the room, and he could see the levels of other players. 12, 14, 8...the highest(excluding Taruto) was 24.

How long had he being on that for?

Damn humans and their "online gaming", it was poisoning the young aliens brain! He was about to help Taruto when he just thought "Well...his brains pretty damaged anyway by the look of it....best to just leave him."

Pai didn't want to get involved, in case he went the same way as the brunette sitting in front of him, who was continuing to stare straight forwards, apparently unaware that anything else existed in the universe.

A quiet whimpering came from across the room. Pai turned around, surprised that he had not noticed Kisshu's silence earlier. The green haired alien was sitting on the floor, his expression one of growing terror, and he looked as if he was trying not to cry.

"K-Kisshu!" Pai said, sounding louder than he had intended too, seeing Kisshu like that surprised him. He thought for a second that perhaps he'd been to see that Ichigo mew girl, but normally when he did tat he'd go into his room to sulk.

"P-Pai...I..." Kisshu looked up at the older alien, and held his hands in the air in front of him.

All four fingers and thumb were stuck together on each hand, and were covered in something transparent and slightly flaky looking.

It was only then that Pai noticed the several small tubes lying on the floor. He picked one up. It was labelled "Super glue."

Pai had heard of that before, when he was studying human life last time he was on Earth. Kisshu had obviously been trying to fix something with it.

"Um, well...." Kisshu said, seemed less panicked now that Pai had arrived. "My fingers kinda got stuck together, and one tube thingy exploded, and I stepped in it...so now my feet are stuck to the floor...I can't fly or teleport."

The whole situation was becoming so ridiculous that Pai would have actually laughed, if not for the fact he was still worried about what he had found the night before.

"Just...just um...put in hot water or something...I'm sure it will come off eventually."

"But I can't get to the sink!"

"God, Kisshu, you really are an idiot sometimes...I'll go down to Earth later...see if I can find a way of unsticking you..." Pai turned to leave.

"B-but Pai! You can't leave me here stuck until then!!" Kisshu wailed, reaching out to Pai with joined together hands.

"Yes I can!" Pai snapped back, now just feeling annoyed with what was happening. "It's your own fault for getting stuck in the first place!" He teleported back to his room, and lay down on his bed, frustrated.

He wished he could just think clearly...but no, his thoughts had to keep going back to the same questions that been bothering him for hours and hours.

What was happening to Retasu now? Had anyone gone to help her? What happened to her in the first place? Was she okay? Was she...alive?

This last question was one that had only just occurred to him...and it left him feeling slightly scared...what if she had actually died?

But no, she wouldn't of, would she?

And if she did, it wasn't as if it was any of his concern.

He got up again to go and attempt to find a way of freeing Kisshu. But he was still to annoyed with the younger alien to really want to, he was also tired...perhaps he should just try and sleep some more.

Not bothering to change, he crawled back under the purple blanket, and was sleeping within minutes.

"Hmmm, its a pity Retasu isn't here..." Ichigo complained, adjusting her kitty headband.

"Yeah, trick or treating is more fun with many people na no da!" Purin whined.

"She'd just keep falling over anyway, I can't understand why you guys are so bothered." Minto said coldly as she pulled the black pointed hat down over her hair. "And I can't believe I let you lot talk me into this."

"B-But Retasu Onee-chan is fun na no da....are you not sad she is hurt??" Purin looked extremely stupid, her mouth turned down in a frown, and the rest of her face painted bright orange to match the giant orange circle that covered most of her body, only her lower arms and legs were visible underneath the massive pumpkin costume.

As a result of this, Minto had even more trouble than usual taking the young monkey girl seriously.

"Yes...you should show more concern for your friend while she is injured." Said Zakuro, speaking for the first time that night.

"Onee-sama, that costume looks brilliant on you!" Minto gushed, staring at Zakuro, who was wearing a long black cloak, and her face, which had been painted white, was covered in blotches of what the others hoped was fake blood.

"Yes, Zakuro Onee-chan makes a scary vampire na no da!" Purin yelled, bouncing up and down like a hyperactive orange.

"Well Minto, aren't you a little upset at least that Retasu is unwell while we are having fun?" Zakuro asked again, ignoring the compliments.

"Y-yes Onee-sama...I just was saying that we shouldn't let her absence bother us so much that we have no fun at all."

A few minute later Ryou joined them, grumbling more than any of the mews had seen him do before. Behind him was Keiichiro, smiling, same as usual.

"I still don't know why the hell I have to do this, we're way too old for trick or treating!" he moaned at them, folding his arms across his chest. "And its even worse I had to dress up!"

"Oh come on Shirogane-san, it's fun trick or treating!" Ichigo smiled, trying to get her cat costume straight.

"Yes, and you not too old for fun na no da!"

"We _are_ too old for this Purin!" He snapped back, looking angrily down at the scaly green gloves he was being forced to wear. "Why do have to be dressed as a freaking dinosaur anyway?" he growled.

"A SCARY dinosaur na no da!" Purin yelled. "Akasaka Onii-chan is too nice to be scary though!" She shouted as Keiichiro pulled the black hood over his head and picked up his scythe, running over to hug him. Her costume prevented her from reaching and she fell backwards. "Help me na no da, Purin is stuck!" she yelled, rolling about helplessly and trying to stand back up.

Pai stared at the alarm clock next to him, it was already evening. He'd spent almost his entire day sleeping.

Remembering the promise he'd made to Kisshu, and realising that if he left it too late then the humans would all be sleeping, and the green haired alien would have to sleep stuck to the floor.

He reluctantly left the bed and teleported down to a street on Earth.

Lots of humans dressed up in white sheets and black cloaks and other such things were moving about the place, knocking on doors, saying the same thing they did every time to whoever answered, and walking off again after receiving something from them, though he couldn't quite see what it was.

It took him 10 minutes to realise what was going on. When he was researching human celebrations, he had come across one named Halloween. Yes, that night must be "Halloween." The people must all be children, what they were saying was "Trick or Treat!", and they must be being given candy.

Pai was very glad that Taruto had not known about this, things were bad enough at the moment without him getting hyper.

He flew off down another streets, asking someone seemed to be the best way of finding out how to free Kisshu, and the only people he could ask without surprising them too much were the mews.

They weren't really children, but the monkey girl Taruto wouldn't shut up about was, and the others must be with her.

God, it was gonna be even harder to find them when they were dressed up, maybe he should just go into a shop that sold super glue and ask if they had a cure...no, they would see his ears.

Everything could have been so much easier for Pai if he'd realised that everyone else looked weird right now as well, but he didn't realise, and continued to search for the mews.

A loud, high pitched voice reached his ears from the street below.

"Help me na no da!!"

Hmmm, Taruto had told him that the monkey girl said na no da. He looked down to see an orange blob lying on the pavement, surrounded by 6 other figures.

No, that couldn't be them, there were only five mews.

But if the orange thing shouting for help was the monkey, and two of the figures were the human men that seemed to own the café....then...no, there would still be one missing.

Retasu might be gone....

He sighed, why was she the first thing that came into his head? He flew closer so that he could see who they were. He couldn't see their faces, but he could make out come of their hair colors and what they were wearing.

The figure in the pointed hat was talking.

"I suppose its kind of good Retasu isn't here, she'd be fussing so much about this...Purin can get up on her own can't she?"

"You really don't care about Retasu Onee-chan na no da, Minto onee-chan is so mean, now help Purin UP na no da!!" The orange blob spoke then.

"Huh? She isn't here?" That was the green one with the tail speaking.

The one with red hair started shouting at the green one. "Shirogane-san! Have you not even noticed she's gone?! How can you be so stupid and mean?!"

"Yeah, well, where is she?"

"At home, in bed, she's got a broken rib and didn't want to come, she said she'd fall and get hurt even worse."

"Well, it true, she probably would and...."

The voice faded as Pai teleported away from the scene, so she was okay...well not okay, she had a broken rib, but she was safe.

Damn, why did he have to feel so relieved?

Well, it was best to go and give her the pendant back, and perhaps she knew something about getting rid of super glue.

Pai looked blankly around at the place he had teleported into, where did she even live?

**Maybe this chapter wasn't that serious...but I had to do that super glue thing. Don't ask why, I just did.**

**I may have trouble updating tomorrow, because I'm going back to school, but I'll probably still get a chapter finished =)**


	5. A Parrot Fish

**I know there isn't much RetasuxPai-ness in it yet, but I swear, there will be! And lots of it!**

When they had last been on Earth, Kisshu had found a map of Tokyo and marked Ichigo's house onto it, having found out where it was.

Of course, Pai had not been too happy about this, knowing where one mew was living, just because Kisshu couldn't leave her alone, was not really any use at all.

So Kisshu had ended up having to mark down the locations of every other mew's house as well.

And this was how Pai knew where to look for Retasu, he returned quickly to the ship, and after memorising the location of Retasu's house, he teleported down again, and found himself floating in the air several metres above her roof.

After checking for trick or treaters, and finding none, he flew down and searched around for her bedroom window. Knocking on the door probably wasn't the best of ideas.

It was on he top floor on he front of the house. Her light was on and she was sat on the bed reading.

It was only then that Pai realised he had no idea what to do next, should he knock on the window? No, that would shock her, she thought he was back on his planet, not that it wouldn't shock her whatever he did, but knocking on her window just seemed odd for some reason.

Well, it was this or knocking on the door, which would probably mean facing her parents as well as her. He could of also gone down the chimney but, no, just, no.

He raised his hand to knock on the glass. Just as he was about to do so and alert Retasu to his presence, he felt someone breathing on the back of his neck. He whirled around, his hand still raised, and almost punched Kisshu in the face.

"What? Kisshu! What the hell are you doing?! You were stuck!"

"Yeah...but I got unstuck..."

"How though?" Pai asked, curious now as well as annoyed. "And why? You knew I was looking for a way to get you out, why not just wait."

"Well, the switch for turning on that "internet" thing the humans have, the one you left in there. I could jusssttt reach it, so I turned it off." Kisshu claimed proudly. "So now that it was gone, Taruto came out of his trance thing, and I got him to fetch me a knife. I told him to hack through the glue holding my fingers together, he did a pretty messy job of it though. When one hand was free I could use it to get the other one clear as well. But there's still a lot of glue on it, its just not holding my fingers together anymore though." He held up his hands, which, though covered in a thick layer of dry super glue, did have the fingers separated from each other. Luckily for Kisshu, this layer of glue seemed to have protected him from injury inflicted by the knife.

"Oh?" Pai asked, feeling relieved that Taruto was off that game. "And what did you do about your feet, weren't they stuck to the floor?"

"Yeah, yeah, they were, but I cut the bottom of my shoes of with the knife." Kisshu replied happily, flinging his legs out in front of him, almost kicking Pai in the stomach and revealing that he had in fact, actually cut off the soles of his shoes. Pai groaned, wondering why he still had the rest of them on, and realising that he had now had to bits of leather glued to the ship's floor.

"And you haven't answered my other question, why the hell didn't you just wait for me, you could have got free without all this trouble?!" He shouted, annoyed, he'd just spent the past half hour looking for a way to help the other alien when he'd got himself unstuck anyway, and ruined the floor at the same time!

"Well, I kinda had too pee, so getting out became a bit more urgent." Kisshu said nervously, Pai wasn't good when he was angry. "So, um, now I've found you, back to the ship?"

"Okay, okay..." Pai sighed, leaving the pendant on Retasu's window sill, hopefully she would find it there soon.

"Hey, what's that?" Kisshu leaned forwards, nosy as ever. "Hey, I know these, Ichigo had one!!"

"Yes, now move idiot! We don't want her seeing you!" Pai pushed him backwards, away from the glass. "And of course she does, all the mews had them, they were for transforming!"

"Ohhh, now I get it." Kisshu smiled. "So what's that one doing with you?"

"Its the porpoise mews one, I found it last night, and decided to return it to her, we're not enemies anymore, and she needs it."

"Oh, I get it, but how did you know it was hers?"

"Because I'm not stupid and I can remember things." Pai said hastily, if he said it in a way that made it clear it was only hers he could remember, then the younger alien was sure to tease him about it. "No get back to the...wait...Kisshu, why the_ hell_ didn't you just take you shoes _off_?"

"That's....a...good point...." Kisshu said, embarrassed. "Hey, Pai? Wait, Pai!!" He teleported after him, back into the room were he had been stuck earlier. "Pai! I still need to find a way of getting it off my hands!"

"Well, you can do it yourself then now, can't you?" Pai said menacingly. "I'm not going to waste any more time searching when you can do it on your own."

"Fine, I will then!" Kisshu teleported back out of the room.

Pai turned around to the computer, wondering why he'd said he was wasting time, he wasn't doing much else.

Hmmm, maybe he would go and research some more Earth creatures, it would be interesting to do it without thinking about how good they would be as a chimera anima.

A Parrot fish.

That was the new picture on Retasu's calendar, it was the first of November, the year seemed to have gone so fast.

She looked up at the fish for second before crossing off the day and picking up her bag. She yelled a quick goodbye to her parents before leaving the house for work.

She pulled her pendant off her neck and held in her hand for a few minutes before tying it back around her throat. She had found on her window sill that morning. She was both relieved and confused, she'd been so worried when she realised it had fallen in the river, she also wondered who it was that returned it too her...

The sky was a pretty blue color, and the sun shone brightly through the autumn leaves, making the colors even more noticeable. Red, yellow, orange, brown...autumn could be so pretty.

Retasu sighed, the morning was so beautiful, and the cold air felt fresh, but she couldn't stop thinking about Ryou.

He had such pretty eyes, the exact same color the sky was that morning, and it was looking into his eyes which had given her the strength to admit her feelings, but still, it didn't matter, telling him how she felt hadn't helped her, it just hurt her.

But , she didn't regret saying it, if she hadn't, she would be walking to work that day still hoping that she would tell him, and now that she knew for sure the he didn't like her the way she liked him, that idea seemed horrible to her.

Tears filled her eyes as she remembered the events of three days ago, Ryou and that horrible man...

She wiped the tears away quickly, she felt so sick of crying by then. He didn't like her, and that was that.

She remembered the book she had been reading the previous night. "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." One of the characters had said that, she already knew the phrase, but it had made her think.

Was she stronger now that she'd survived being rejected by Ryou?

She knew now that he didn't like her, and that she shouldn't get so obsessed over people, that made her stronger, right?

She wanted to say that it did, but she still loved him as much as she had before.

_I wish that I didn't anymore...then I could be happier right now..._

She arrived at the café, and smiled. She shouldn't think about things like that while she was working, she'd attract attention from the others, she didn't want them to know about what had happened.

She also knew that if she was distracted by her thoughts, then she would end up falling over and hurting her rib badly. She was allowed to go into work with it, though everyone had been telling her to stay home.

She walked into the café, with a happy shout of "Good morning everyone!" and was immediately being asked is she was okay by every other mew, and Keiichiro. Ryou stood in the kitchen doorway, not looking at her.

He knew she was upset about their conversation the other night, and that she had been hurt afterwards, several of the mew girls had asked if it was his fault, Ichigo had yelled at him about it for half an hour without stopped once.

He felt stupid, every other person in the café had realised Retasu like him, except for him. If he'd known about it before she'd told him then things might not have gone as badly as they did.

Well, she'd be okay, her rib was broken, but she seemed to be doing fine...as long as she didn't trip over. He didn't know how she got hurt, he hadn't asked. He just hoped it hadn't come from her trying to harm herself in any way.

"We got some pictures from last night, as you weren't there!" He heard Ichigo shouting happily. "See, here's Ryou in his dinosaur costume!"

"What the? Give me that, now!!" He shouted, walking up to Ichigo and snatching the photo from her.

"But it's my photo, I took it!" She cried back, lunging at him and pulling it back. "My photo. And I will do what I like with it."

Ryou groaned, hoping that customers would start arriving before she got to show that many photos to Retasu.

**I know this chapters a bit shorter than the last, sorry! And again, I promise that Retasu and Pai will actually see each other again at some point!**


	6. A Rare Occurance: Kisshu thinks!

**Okay, I know how late this chapter is. I got obsessed with Sailor Moon by accident and lost most of my motivation for writing this. But I'm updating it again now, and if I ever leave an update this long again, then you may have me hung, drawn and quartered over the internet…somehow.**

* * *

Pai was up every morning at roughly the same time. He wasn't the type of person to sleep in.

The rest of his day would normally be spent on the computer, researching.

But that seemed to have changed in the past few days; he got up later, and spent much more of his time locked away in his room. He didn't seem to do much on the computer anymore. He was acting so much more annoyed now, and displaying only a small amount of his usual curiosity.

And for these reasons, Kisshu was worried.

He thought that perhaps it was because he felt he had no purpose now that he was no longer living to serve Deep Blue and restore his planet. He'd been so dedicated to that, choosing it above everything else....even Taruto's life...

And Kisshu wasn't just worried for Pai; he was also terrified for his own future. What if one day Ichigo accepted him, and he ended up as lifeless as Pai was now?

That was the problem with being so obsessed with achieving only one thing.

He was sitting cross-legged in the air, thinking about all this. But, being Kisshu, he couldn't just sit still and think for that long. He stood up straight in the air, feeling the need to actually do something.

But now, for what seemed the first time in about a year, he didn't feel like going and bothering Ichigo, or stealing Taruto's possessions, or anything like that.

His mood was still too serious for any of his normal activities. He was still worried about Pai and himself.

Perhaps he should talk to Pai about it.

He was about to teleport straight into Pai's bedroom, but decided it was safer to knock first.

So he teleported to just outside the door, knocked, and walked in without waiting for an answer.

So really, there wasn't a huge amount of difference.

Pai was sitting on his bed, staring at the book he was holding. But he wasn't reading it, his eyes remained still.

"Hey, Pai." Kisshu said cautiously. "I wanna ask you something, can I?"

Pai looked up at the younger alien and nodded.

"So, um..." He looked down at the book. Written on the spine were the words 'Swallows and Amazons' He wondered what it meant. "Um, whatcha reading?"

"Is that what you came in here to ask? Because if it isn't, then hurry up and get to the actual point." Pai replied, putting down his book.

"Well, you've been acting odd recently. I want to know why."

"I haven't been acting any different to the way I normally do, unless you count the fact I'm not trying to kill the mew mews."

"Look, Pai! It's obvious you're acting weird! You just sit here, you aren't even reading properly! Is it because you don't have anything to do now we saved everyone back home?" If Kisshu was anyone else, he would probably have trying to approach the subject carefully, but, being Kisshu and not someone else, he just said what he though right away.

Pai was surprised. Kisshu had actually thought of a very good reason for him being like this. Not that it was right of course.

It was then that Pai realised he didn't really know the true reason himself, and had not even noticed how he was acting until Kisshu had pointed it out only seconds ago.

"Oh...well...I didn't notice the change at all." Pai said, now focusing completely on the green haired alien sitting on the end of his bed. He supposed it was best to let Kisshu think that his explanation had been correct; it would save him having to think up a new one, as the actual reason was unknown to him. "But, yeah, I guess your right." He said, trying to keep the image of Retasu out of his mind, she couldn't possibly be the reason, of course she couldn't.

"Okay…and, uh, Pai…I know it seems really stupid…but…." Kisshu said slowly, as if embarrassed to be revealing his feelings to Pai. "Well…what if when I get Ichigo to like me….what if I end up like that as well…?"

Damn, Pai hadn't expected that Kisshu was actually concerned about it; he'd thought he was just being curious. What was he supposed to tell him now? He didn't want to lie to him. But it seemed that making up an answer was his only option.

"Er, well, I guess you'll just have to find out…" He said blankly, being vague was generally a good tactic when you either didn't want to, or didn't know how to answer a question. "And, wait, _when_ she likes you? Shouldn't that be an if?"

"I don't want to wait to find out though…" Kisshu said miserably, though he didn't press Pai to say any more on the subject. "And no, it's a when; she _has_ to like me some day." He said, optimistic as ever. Or maybe he was just overly obsessed.

Perhaps it was a bit of both.

"Well, sorry to worry you about it." Pai said, getting up off the bed. "I will stop acting the way I am doing, alright? Now get out of my room." He teleported away before Kisshu had a chance to respond.

Retasu held the pendant in her palm, still wondering who had returned it too her.

Ryou?

No, that was stupid. She was starting to become like Ichigo was with Aoyama. Except Aoyama liked Ichigo back.

It obviously hadn't been him that did it. He would just have given it to her the next day, and he definitely wouldn't have left it on her window ledge. He wouldn't even have been able to reach.

Perhaps a bird had found it and placed it there by a lucky coincidence. But that was just as ridiculous as Ryou putting it there, if not even more so.

Retasu found herself thinking of three people who would easily have been able to place the pendant there. But they had been gone for months now. They'd probably be back on their own planet, happy now that their world was recovering.

Kisshu had probably found someone of his own species to stalk; perhaps he was attempting to molest them at that very second. Retasu tried not to think too much about that idea. Taruto was probably having fun with a load of other alien children, eating too much sugar and annoying all the others.

Pai, what would he be doing? Maybe he'd gone to some sort of alien university, and was studying. Would he have fallen in love with someone there?

She doubted the aliens remembered them very well; they had normal lives now on their own planet. And however obsessed Kisshu had been over Ichigo, it wasn't impossible that he had forgotten about her only days after they'd left earth. Taruto was still only a little kid, and probably didn't care about Purin at all anymore, if he remembered her existence at all.

And Pai, he didn't even have someone to forget about, did he?

Retasu felt her cheeks turn slightly pink as she remembered the way he had looked at her just before he died. Was her memory faulty, or had he even smiled?

Well, even if he had looked at her, it was important. He was in impossibly long way from her now, or so she thought.

She was woken abruptly from her thoughts by the sound of her mother calling to her from the bottom of the staircase.

Tying the pendant back around her neck, she jumped off her bed and ran down the stairs, almost tripping over and falling flat on her face in the hall.

"Um, what did you want me for?" She asked her mother, who was waiting for her with a suitcase in her hands.

"Oh good, you're here." The woman replied, sounding relieved. "I know I'm a bit late letting you know, but I and your father are going away for a few days, he's got to go to a meeting in the other end of the country. We'll be leaving tonight, so you have to look after the house for a bit, okay Retasu?"

"Um, yes, okay." Retasu replied, sounding surprised.

"Oh good!" Her mother said, giving her daughter a quick hug before saying. "Okay, I need to go finish packing now; I'll let you know when we're leaving." And leaving the room.

* * *

**I know this chapter was short and probably a bit boring too, but I ran out of ideas, and the next one will be better, I promise! Also, the book Pai was reading was just a random one I saw on my shelf.**


	7. Elbow

**I took ages to update again, I'm so sorry!!!**

**Also, to Ryou's Worst Nightmare: You asked me in a review reply how this was going, I didn't know how reply to that, sorry! ^__^;;**

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* * *

  
**

He lived on Earth now, or at least, several miles above it, and it was important that he learned to live the way people should on that planet.

For this reason, Pai had decided that he and the other two aliens needed to get used to the food humans ate.

They didn't eat much when they were there first time around, the survived on supplies from their planet, and some basic things they'd found on Earth, bread and such. And Taruto had mostly lived on sugar.

But that had to stop, Taruto needed a healthy diet, and so did he and Kisshu, so they were all going to investigate ways of obtaining earth food in a normal way, like humans did. Though they knew it required money, which they could make pretty easily by selling bits of technology which were as good as broken to them, but still of use to humans; they had very little knowledge of where you bought it from.

Taruto had been given a book by Purin about farms; it used to belong to one of her younger siblings, and so Taruto teleported out into the countryside to find a farm. Kisshu had gone to a supermarket, and left Pai alone on the ship for a few minutes before he too left.

Pai stood in front of the building, staring up at the brightly coloured sign.

**SEAFOOD CAFE **

**The Fishiest Place to Dine!**

Well, hopefully it meant fishy in the animal way, Pai needed to finish investigating the café before Kisshu and Taruto finished their jobs; and this place seemed much less suspicious than the one titled "Café Erotica, watch Hot girls undress while you dine on exotic food." Pai didn't need to be from earth to understand that this was a place he didn't want to go to, and that by "exotic food" it probably didn't mean foreign.

The building was almost empty, probably as it was a Sunday, and hadn't even reached lunchtime yet.

He sat down at a table and ordered food from the short, brown haired waiter that walked over to his table looking extremely confused at the aliens appearance, but obviously either to scared or to polite to ask about it.

* * *

Purin smiled cheerfully and hummed to herself as she half walked, half ran, through the streets. Sunday was her favourite day of the week, along with Thursday, and Tuesday, and Saturday, and Wednesday ,and Monday, and Friday.

She was so happy about everything that she tripped over a stick lying in the middle of the road.

"Ow-ow-owww! Purin is in pain na no da!" She cried before pulling herself up again.

She had stood up again in a different direction to the way she had fallen down, so she was now facing towards the building she was stood by, staring straight into the window.

Her pouty expression instantly became one of shock and amazement. Her mouth hung open, her brown eyes widened as she stared into the café, and her tail and eyes came into existence with a quiet "pop."

And it was this popping sound that caught Pai's attention, he turned his head towards the window. The purple haired aliens fork slipped out of his hands, spilling sushi on the surface of the wooden table.

The sight of Purin standing there, stiff as a plank, with such a brilliant expression of amazement, and her monkey features unnoticed by only her was enough to make anyone burst out laughing.

Well, not anyone. Pai was too shocked to find anything about the situation, though, being Pai, he probably wouldn't have laughed no matter how surprised he was.

Purin was the first to recover, she shook her head, turned towards the café door and walked straight in towards where Pai was sat.

"Hey, is that you Pai, is it, is it na no da?!" She almost shouted to him, waving her hand in front of his face and causing the few other people in the building to turn and stare at them. Though they soon went back to their food after noticing the glare that Pai gave them.

"Is it Pai, is it na no da?" Purin asked again quietly, sitting down on the chair next to Pai and poking him in the arm.

"What is the monkey mew doing here?!" He hissed at her, he had made sure to go somewhere far from the mew mew café, and having the fact he was back on Earth discovered so early bothered him; it would cause trouble if the mews found out about them having returned, and besides, Kisshu and Taruto were supposed to be the careless ones who got found, not him!

He'd been worried that the other to aliens would have given it away at the very start, by visiting the mew leader and the monkey girl sat next to him, but judging by Purin's surprise, Taruto hadn't seen her at all since before they departed after the battle with Deep Blue.

"I came out to look at the pretty leaves!" She exclaimed happily. "But I fell over, and then I see Pai na no da!! But...what is he doing here na no da?"

He hesitated for a moment, wondering whether or not telling her was such a good idea. Well, she'd already found out he was there, and she might be more likely to blab to the other mews if her curiosity hadn't been satisfied.

"We, well, I guess we just weren't so happy back on our planet, so we made the decision to return here and continue researching the planets environment."

"That was a long sentence, Purin didn't get all of it na no da...But I do understand why you come back, you guys were all bored without us!!" She half shouted to him in excitement. "We were all sad and bored to, everything was to normal now, but then we could transform again, and we fight more na no da!!"

Pai supposed that being bored could be one way to describe why they'd left, he'd never really considered it before.

"Okay, monkey girl, Purin, is that your na-" But he was interrupted halfway through his question.

"B-but why didn't Taru-Taru come and see me?!" Her eyes filled up with childish tears. "Purin missed him so much na no da!!"

"Erm, well, yes..." Pai said awkwardly, he wasn't used to children crying around him, he had no idea that the monkey girl was likely to be back to her usual happy self in less than minutes. "You see, we do not wish to be seen by you mews, though this encounter has proved that to be unavoidable and that is why Taruto has not met up with you, just has Kisshu has stayed far from Ichigo, well, hopefully he has anyway."

"Ah, I see!" Purin smiled again. "So now that Pai met Purin, you guys will come visit us!!"

"No, that will not happen." Pai said flatly. "Please, could you not tell any of the other mews about this?" He looked at her seriously.

Purins frowned a little, but did not argue.

"Okay, so it is Purins little secret na no da, right Pai onii-chan?"

"W-what?" Pai exclaimed.

"I said that it will be-"

"No, I mean what did you just call me??"

"Purin called you Pai Onii-chan, because now that you, Kisshu and Taru-Taru aren't being the bad guys anymore, Pai is Purins Onii-chan aswell na no da!!"

"Okay..." Pai didn't want to risk trying to make her call him simply by his name again, arguing with children was not something he wanted to end up doing. "So, erm, what is happening with you lot at the moment, is Tokyo Mew Mew still fighting?"

"Yes, yes we are na no da! And everyone is happy! Except Ichigo Onee-chan and Aoyama Onii-chan are not as happy as they were before...and Shirogane Onii-chan made Retasu Onee-chan unhappy, and she was hurt as well after that na no da!"

Aoyama...Pai recalled him having been the Blue Knight. Well, Kisshu would be happy to know him and Mew Ichigo weren't getting on, not that he'd tell him of course, that might cause him to go and visit her.

"Retasu...why did Shirogane make upset?" He asked, feeling genuine concern for the green haired mew, though he tried to ignore it as much as he could. She wasn't important after all, just another human....

"Purin won't tell you na no da!" the young girl shouted excitedly. "Because its not fair if you get to know lots about us and we can't even now you're here! And maybe...maybe you will go and talk to her yourself, and then everyone will be allowed to meet each other again, if that happens, Purin will see Taru-Taru na no da!"

Pai decided then that Purin was the most annoying mew.

...Unless the Blue Knight could be counted as a mew.

"Okay...well, I'm leaving now, alright?" The violet haired alien stood up. "Don't tell anyone we're here okay? Or we _will_ be the bad guys again."

"Okay na no da!"

* * *

"'ook, Taruto, 'm almost 'oing it!" Was the first sound Pai heard upon returning to the ship. Sighing and preparing himself for the idiocy he was about see, he opened his eyes.

Kisshu and Taruto were both sat cross legged in the air, with their arms held next to their faces and their tongues sticking out as far as they could go.

"Hey Pai!" Taruto yelled, lowering his arm and sticking his tongue back in his mouth. "The humans say you can't lick your own elbow, so we're gonna prove them wrong, wanna help?!"

"No, and how did you even manage to find that out while investigating food?" Without waiting for them to answer, Pai teleported back to his room.

He lay down completely still for almost ten minutes.

...Pai slowly raised his arm towards his mouth.

......

........

"...Dammit"

**Okay, quite a boring chapter again, sorry! But it will be better soon, and I promise that its not long before there's actually some fluff in here!"**


	8. We Wish You A Merry Kishmas

**I'm so, so sorry for the wait again! It just takes me so long to get round to writing it….**

* * *

What was he had said to Purin?

Oh yeah, "Taruto has not met up with you, just has Kisshu has stayed far from Ichigo."

Well that was optimistic of him.

Well, at the time, it had been true, Taruto had kept away from the mews, and still was doing, and Kisshu had, surprisingly, kept to the ship as well.

Pai, being ridiculously hopeful, had believed that the green haired alien was doing it because he was showing sense for once.

But no, he'd simply decided that he was going to make his reappearance a significant one, and so found a time when he could make his presence known to the unfortunate cat mew, and do so in a way that was much better than just swooping down and kissing her, tempting as that may have been for him.

But why, _why_ would anybody think that the first thing Ichigo wanted to see when she woke up on Christmas morning, full of joy and excitement about the presents she was going to receive, was the face of the person she had hated and fought against for many months only inches away from hers?

Well, apparently Kisshu thought that.

Why did he think that?

Not even Deep Blue-sama could have known that. Kisshu's mind worked in strange ways, and that was if it worked at all.

Which it didn't.

Pai's thoughts were interrupted as he realised that he had been saying them out loud for the past 10 minutes.

"Why does my brain not work then, Pai?"

Damn, when did Kisshu get there?

"I came in here at the point where my beloved Ichigo was excited about her Christmas presents." He said, grinning slightly.

Great, had he learned to read minds as well now?

"No, I haven't. You're still speaking out loud."

"Oh, sorry. Just tired." Pai replied, glaring at Kisshu.

He'd still been speaking?

He frowned, annoyed at himself for acting such an idiot.

Well, if you start speaking without noticing, that's definitely a sign that you should go to sleep soon. He had been stood there staring at the computer screen for over 24 hours and had still got barely any research done.

He'd gone into the room after Kisshu had told him about how he'd woken Ichigo up that morning, and not left since.

He'd wanted so badly to just yell at the other alien, shout at him for being so stupid and careless.

But it was obvious by now that shouting had absolutely no effect on Kisshu, so perhaps ignoring him would work a little better?

"Aw, come on Pai. It's not like it did any harm…I mean, I suppose it frightened my Koneko-chan a little…" He frowned. "But she was fine really, and it's not as if there's any actual reason that we should keep away from them, right? The monkey girl would love to see Taruto again, and don't pretend that you don't wanna go visit the porpoise mew, right Pai?"

He grinned slyly and leaned his head over the older aliens shoulder, so that their faces were only centimetres apart.

"Don't talk nonsense." Pai growled, pushing Kisshu's face away roughly.

"Ouch! That hurt….just because you don't wanna admit how much you like her. Anyway, I'm going to carry on visiting my little Koneko-chan; after all, she's got to start loving me some time."

There it was, that grin again. That stupid, mocking, over-confident grin. Did he care at all about anything other than that stupid Ichigo?

"In fact, I've just been telling Taruto to go and see Purin! He's going down there to say hello first thing in the morning!"

Screw the ignoring treatment.

"Kisshu, do you really think that I told you two not to talk to the mews for no reason?! Ichigo is never going to like you, and she'd obviously be so much happier if you hadn't ever even met her, let alone come back to her like that after she'd thought you'd gone at last! Why can you never just do as you're told?!"

Kisshu's grin vanished in a second.

"Shut up Pai. Ichigo will love me, you'll see. And Purin love's Taruto too, even if they are still children, so won't you just stop being such a cold bastard all the time and let her see him? Whether you let me see Ichigo or not doesn't bother me, I'll visit her whenever I want. No matter what you say."

And with that he teleported out of the room, leaving Pai standing perfectly still, glaring furiously at the spot where the younger alien had been.

After a few minutes, he sighed tiredly and teleported down to the ground, not caring where he'd end up. His argument with Kisshu had left his head buzzing; he wouldn't be able to go to sleep now even if he tried.

Kisshu thought Pai had been ordering them not to visit the mews simply because he was cruel, and that obeying him would be completely pointless.

Sighing again, the alien sat down on a nearby rock, there was no one else in the park he had arrived in as it was the middle of the night.

Well, let him think that. Pai knew he'd sound like an idiot if he tried to explain that he thought that the mews were happy now, and that if they found out their former enemies had returned to Earth then it would distract them from what they should be doing, and worry them despite the fact they had stopped fighting each other months ago.

Even if Purin wanted them back, she was just a child, and the other 4 were happy now without them. Ichigo still had that annoying Blue Knight to love her, and Retasu was probably with Ryou now. God only knows how the other two were doing.

And he'd sound even more of an idiot if he confessed that he actually felt guilty.

If it hadn't been for them, then the mews would have lived normal, happy lives, without having to start fighting at such a young age.

He felt that he was much more responsible for that then the other two were, he'd always been the one in charge, and he'd stayed with Deep Blue almost to the end.

But none of that mattered anymore, they knew now. And nothing could be done about it.

Why did he have to think that at least he'd get to see Retasu again? He'd seen her once when he first got there, but she'd never noticed that he was there, he'd made sure of that.

Even if Kisshu and Taruto talked to the mews again, he wouldn't. It wasn't important; it wasn't as if he cared for them or anything.

And so what if he got to see her again, she wasn't really ay different from the others. She was with Ryou as well. Oh god, why did he have to care that she was? He didn't like her, she wasn't special in anyway.

She was just another one of the mews.

"_Why do creatures that came from the same planet have to kill each other?"_

"_You also have something important, something you want to protect!"_

The thoughts following the memories faded into blackness as sleep engulfed Pai's mind and the memories themselves faded into dreams of the green haired porpoise girl.

"Ah, Ichigo-san, you're here early!" Retasu cried happily, smiling at her friend as she walked in through the café doors. "I figured you'd be even sleepier after Christmas but none of the others have even arrived yet….Ichigo? Are you alright?" her smile was immediately replaced with a worried frown.

Ichigo had purple rings under her half-closed eyes and was wavering slightly, holding onto her mop for support.

"Ichigo-san! You look tired out. Being early isn't that important, and Shirogane-san said we didn't even need to come in today because it won't be so busy after Christmas!"

"Hmmm?" Ichigo seemed to have only just noticed her standing there. "Oh…yeah….I'm just kind of sleepy."

"You're really tired! You should sleep more! Come on, the floor's clean now, come and sit down." Retasu grabbed hold of Ichigo's hand and pulled her towards one of the tables, sitting down on the chair opposite her.

"Ichigo-san, what's wrong? Why haven't you been sleeping so much? Normally you'd still be in bed by now."

"I can't get too sleep." Ichigo said sadly, before her expression quickly changed to as angry as when Ryou "accidentally" spilled cake all over her dress last April Fools. "It's all that damn Kisshu-baka's fault!" She yelled suddenly, making the other girl jump. "I can't sleep now because I keep thinking he's gonna be there again when I wake up!"

"Kisshu? But he's been gone for a long time now Ichigo….and he saved us in the end, didn't he? All of them did." She smiled again, but still looked concerned.

"I don't care if he saved us; he's a stupid, stupid bastard! And he's not gone either! He woke me up on Christmas, and he kissed me _again_!! And I bet the other two are back as well, and Kisshu's going to be bothering me again! I can't even sleep properly because I'm scared I'll wake up to him again!"

"Kisshu-san…is back? And the others? But that's good isn't it? Purin-chan misses Taruto-san, and it will be nice to try and get along with them now. Maybe if you are nice to Kisshu, and ask him nicely to leave you be instead of just attacking him, then he will stop bothering you, right Ichigo-san? Remember, fighting isn't always the way to solve things."

"I guess you're right…but still it's so annoying that he's back…"

"Hey! You two, I know I said you didn't have to come in today, but now that you have there's work for you to do, okay? Ichigo, well done on not sleeping until mid-afternoon for once, but you need to start working!" Ryou shouted unexpectedly, having just entered the room.

Retasu blushed as she felt her heart beat faster. She hadn't seen him since before Christmas. That short time without him seemed to have made her like him even more.

And it still hurt that he didn't like her back.

He wasn't like other people; she liked him more than just a crush. Even now, two whole months after he had rejected her, she still felt for him as strongly as ever.

And she hated herself for it, but she still felt hope that he might one day return her feelings. Because without that single, stupid hope, she knew that she'd just end up as a sobbing mess again.

"Ah, Good morning Shirogane-san!" She said, remembering he was there. "Did you have a nice Christmas?"

"Yeah, it was alright. I liked your present by the way, you're a good cook."

She turned a deeper shade of pink, remembering the meringue she'd made for him.

She'd only just managed to pluck up the courage to give it to him when they'd left work on Christmas Eve with strict instructions to "not eat it until tomorrow!"

"Thank you for the compliment, Shirogane-san! But it wasn't that good really…."

"I bet it was, you really do make nice food Retasu!" Ichigo said, sounding slightly more cheerful now, perhaps because she'd told someone about Kisshu's return?

"For once, I agree with the Sleepyhead." Ryou smiled. "It really was nice. I just wish I'd thought ahead to get you something in return"

Before the porpoise mew had chance to blush and protest even more, the café door burst open and the other three mews walked in, chatting cheerfully about how their Christmases had been.

Both the mews cheerful greetings and Ryou's order to get to work were interrupted by twin cries of

"Oh my god, you three, Kisshu's back!!"

* * *

**Yeah, I know Christmas is a long time after the other chapters…sorry! There won't be so many time skips in future!**


	9. Green Cows

**Wow, I haven't updated it this soon in…ever O_O**

* * *

"Wow…so they're actually back then…." Keiichiro murmured after Ichigo had finished explaining Kisshu's sudden return to the rest of the mews, plus Ryou and Keiichiro.

"Haha, but Purin already knew about all of that na no da!" Purin cried out proudly, making other the others except Zakuro jump.

"What? You did?" Asked Minto.

"Yes! I met Pai Onii-chan in a café that wasn't his one, and he told me that they were all back here now na no da!! But I was not supposed to tell you because you guys can't know na no da." Her voice went quiet then, but bounced back up to its normal volume immediately. "But now Kisshu Onii-chan is annoying Ichigo Onee-chan, and so we can all know!"

"Kisshu _Onii-chan_?!" Ichigo exclaimed, looking horrified.

"She called Pai that too Ichigo." Retasu added.

"Yes…Pai Onii-chan reacted like that too na no da…They are all our friends now, so they are Purin's Onii-chans too. Not Taru-Taru though, he is still a kid. But everyone is so confused about it, even though it makes good sense na no da!"

"I think that Ichigo is simply shocked that you call Kisshu something that affectionate Purin." Zakuro said blankly, already over the shock of Ichigo's news. "What did you do after that then, Ichigo? You must have got him out of there somehow."

"Well…I dunno…I guess I just started screaming at him, you know, same as usual. And then he said something, the same old normal shit about "You know you missed me Koneko-chan" and then teleported away again….damn Kisshu-baka…"

"Oh? And you family didn't ask about the screaming?" Minto asked, giggling slightly.

"Well, yeah, kind of, my dad just said later on that I must have been really excited about Christmas that morning…and he kept teasing me about it…" Ichigo's expression turned sulky as the several of the others giggled nervously.

Ryou glared at them. Apparently laughing was one of those things Ryou says not to do unless Ichigo will actually take offense.

Then again, it could just be because he found the situation more serious than the others did.

"There could be a chance of them attacking again. What do you lot think about this?" He asked, the only one looking serious now. Ichigo was looking sulky, annoyed, and overall her usual childish self, Zakuro looked blank, the other 3 girls were still grinning a little, and Keiichiro was just smiling happily…..again.

"I doubt that is their intention." Zakuro said, closing her eyes briefly before looking sideways towards the monkey mew sitting next to her. "Purin, did Pai show any signs of wanting to continue the attacks on us when you met him in the café?"

"No, Pai Onii-chan said that…um…well, I can't remember what he said very well…but, no wait, it was because him and Kisshu and Taru-Taru were horribly bored without us na no da!"

Minto sighed.

"Purin-chan, are you sure that's not just what you interpreted it as?" She asked, sipping on her tea.

"Maybe so, but Purin is very good at interpreting, that's right na no da!"

"Of course you are Purin-chan!" Retasu said to her, smiling almost as much as Keiichiro now, and without even a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Minto gave her a weird look.

"But if the don't want to fight, then that's brilliant, right Shirogane-san?" She continued. "It will be great to talk to them now that we are no longer enemies, and Purin missed Taruto-san while they were gone!"

Ryou only grunted in reply, and Retasu looked put out. She knew it was who he was, and that if she didn't love and except that part of him, then she wouldn't be loving him for who he was. But it still sounded as if he was rejecting her again when he responded like that.

"Yes, Purin missed her Taru-Taru very much na no da, but not anymore na no daaa!!"

"_Your_ Taru-Taru?"

"Yes, and now Purin has stopped missing him na no da!"

"Shouldn't you wait until you see him to stop missing him Purin-chan?" Ichigo asked, still sounding grumpy and not understanding why the others thought that stupid little brat coming back to Earth was such a good thing!

"Huh? But Purin has seen Taru-Taru na no da! Taru-Taru came to see Purin this morning, it was early na no da, only 6 O'clock!"

"Wait, what?! You were talking to him, and you didn't tell us?! I thought you were allowed to tell us about meeting them now that we know anyway!"

"Yes, I am allowed too…but Ichigo Onee-chan already has told everyone they are here, and so I don't need to na no da!"

"Purin, you should have told us, it was important!" Ryou scolded.

"Shirogane Onii-chan is mean!" Purin poked her tongue out at him. "Purin can not tell you about talking to Taru-Taru if I want…but if you want me to tell you about things like that, then it is definitely important for me to tell they will be here na no da!"

"Okay, that's better…" Ryou said. "So they're going to be…..wait, they're what?!"

"I told him to come here later and bring the other alien Onii-chans with him. Because otherwise it will be ages before you see them na no da." The monkey-girl replied proudly.

"They're coming here?!" All of them?! Kisshu?! Soon?! Kisshu?!?!" Ichigo shrieked, entering full panic mode.

"Yes na no da."

* * *

"Hey, Pai!"

That was weird. The large shoal of green fish swimming in front of him were speaking in the porpoise mews voice just now, why had it changed to Taruto's?

Well, this dream was bound to be just as odd as the others.

"Pai, Paiii!!"

The fish could at least say something interesting.

The violet haired alien's head had been filled with strange, vivid dreams since he had fallen asleep a few hours previously, all of them featuring Retasu in some way. IN one she had yelled at him with Kisshu's voice, saying he should let the mews and aliens meet again, telling him that he should stop being such a cold bastard and let Taruto go and see Purin. Her body had then grown, and morphed into that of a porpoises which began crying salty tears and screaming at him, in her own voice, that she really wanted too see him before Ryou had appeared in a boat and thrown a harpoon at her.

In one of the weirdest ones she'd been a green cow, stood in the center of an empty purple field and grazing on super glue tubes, elbows, heavily bejewelled swords and a small elf in a dinosaur costume.

And now, one of the lime coloured fish darted forwards and began floundering around next to him, using its entire body to slap him repeatedly across the cheek.

"Pai, Pai wake up dammit!"

Slowly, the image of the fish faded and morphed into small, pale hand, the ocean became an empty park, and the rest of shoal became….Taruto?!

"Ah, Pai, you're awake at last!" the young alien shouted happily, ceasing the face slapping and stepping back. "You sleep a lot."

"Huh? Taruto, what's…" he stopped, realising he must have fallen asleep outside. "Ugh, damn, why are you here Taruto?"

"Purin told me to bring you and Kisshu to the mew mews café, Kisshu's waiting near there now. He said he didn't want to help wake you up, because it was your time of the month and so you're being grumpy right now. Hey, Pai, what does "your time of the month" mean?"

"Ugh, Taruto, it is not my time of the month, nor will it ever be. If you want to know what it means, Kisshu will tell you."

"I asked him, he says it means you have your period, but I don't know what that means either…anyway, hurry, we have to be there soon!"

"There? At the café??"

"Yes, I already told you! I hope this is a really, really short time of the month, whatever it is, it's making you stupid as well!""

"No, Taruto, we are not…" He stopped talking and thought for a minute. Maybe he was being cruel? It couldn't do the mews that much harm. "Fine, you go. I'm not coming with you."

"yes you are!" The younger alien pouted. "We all are. Besides, just because you're being grumpy doesn't mean you're allowed to skip on visiting them. It would be mean, Purin wants us all to be there, and Kisshu says the porpoise one must_ really_ miss you, like you _really, really_ miss her too. And that's how he said it."

"Fine, I'll go." Pai growled, barely able to believe he was actually giving in to Taruto.

Giving in to Taruto and to the part of him that longed unexplainably to talk to Retasu again, not as enemies now, but as friends.

Friends, could they really become that?

_No, that's stupid, of course we can't…_ He thought as he teleported ext to Taruto, opening his eyes again to the front doors of Café Mew Mew.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, he reached to push open the door, but pulled his hand back.

He stepped back. It was not because he didn't want to go in; he'd made up his mind now that he would, but because he was experiencing the childish feeling of wanting another to go in front of him, in a way, someone he could hide behind.

It had never mattered before, he'd entered the café on one other occasion, but then it had been to fight. Now it wasn't it was to talk.

And he actually felt, no, surely he wasn't actually feeling _shy_? That was ridiculous; feeling shy about it was just stupid, childish and pointless. It was a weakness even.

But however much he tried to deny it, he actually felt nervous. Because, truthfully he had no idea what to say to them; how to act.

It was so easy for the other two, so why couldn't he do it? If Taruto and Kisshu could do something, then he must be able too as well.

But he wouldn't be able too.

"Hey Pai, hurry up will you??" Taruto said impatiently, pushing in front of him and entering the café, Kisshu right behind him. Pai followed hesitantly, beginning to regret going there.

He'd never really realised just how bad at dealing with social situations he was before.

"Hey, we're here!" Taruto yelled, making their presence known.

Several things happened at once.

Purin squealed with joy and threw herself at the youngest of the three aliens, causing him to protest loudly.

Ichigo shrieked and fell off her chair.

And Keiichiro started running around screaming.

"Quick, guests, we need cake, we need cakkee!!!!!!!" Before running into a wall and falling to the floor.

"Hi! We came back!" Taruto said happily, pushing the still squealing Purin off him and apparently unaware of the chaos he had just caused.

Five minutes later, everyone had calmed down and was sitting around the table drinking cups of tea which Keiichiro had made.

"Sorry, for scaring you earlier, we didn't know you'd be so frightened." Taruto said while sniffing suspiciously at his tea. "Oh yeah, and you shouldn't bother Pai, he's grumpy right now because he has his period." He added, nodding wisely and sounding completely sincere. After all, how was he supposed to know it wasn't true?

The mews all turned to stare at him while Kisshu sat there cackling. Pai buried his face in his palm and Retasu turned scarlet.

Zakuro turned to look at her instead now, wondering whether she actually thought Pai had periods, or had just become so nervous that the word itself made her blush. Probably the latter, nobody was that stupid.

"Um, Pai-san, have you actually…got, um….?"

Okay, nobody was that stupid, except Ichigo.

"No, no I haven't." Pai growled. "He just happens to believe everything that Kisshu tells him."

They were saved a rant from Taruto about not even knowing what it meant by Minto, who had been looking uncomfortable for a while suddenly yelling at the unfortunate little alien.

"For god's sake, stop sniffing the tea! It's not bad, it's very, very good and you should trust it! Have you never had Earth food before?!"

"N-no. Well…I've had candy, and Ice-cream."

"Wait…but…if you've never heard of Earth foods on your planet, then how did you're parents manage to name you all after them…?" Retasu asked, having recovered from her embarrassment.

The three aliens just stared in confused silence for so long that it was clear that they didn't even know they were named after Earth food, and that subject needed to be changed.

"You know, we should probably be discussing why you guys are here." Said Zakuro, who had only just stopped marvelling at her friends' idiocy about the period thing.

"Well, Taruto missed the monkey girl." Kisshu gestured to Purin as he spoke. "I just knew that my little Koneko-chan must be bursting for longing for me, and it would be cruel not to relieve her of such agony" Ichigo recoiled at this, and almost started yelling at him, but was silenced by a glare from Ryou. "And Pai wanted to research this planet more, also, he won't admit, but I know how much he wanted to see Retasu again, you can tell how much he's been missing her!" He grinned. "Isn't that right Pai? See, now you don't have to say it yourself, I admitted it too her for you!"

"Don't talk such nonsense Kisshu! Just because you are always chasing after Ichigo doesn't mean everyone else has to act the same."

"I'll go make a cake." Said Keiichiro happily. "Maybe then we can all be in a better mood!"

"Okay. Well, I think that we should discuss…" Ryou trailed off and sighed when he realised no one was listening. Purin and Taruto had started fighting, or playing, it was difficult to tell with them. Ichigo was arguing with Kisshu and Minto was concentrating much more on her cup of tea.

The other three were standing around, not doing much, but still definitely not listening.

Ryou grunted and walked off, he'd have thought that Retasu at least would pay attention.

"I'll go help with the cake; I don't feel much like talking right now." Zakuro said blankly, picking up the empty cups and carrying them through to the kitchen.

"Umm…ummm….Hello Pai-san!" Retasu squeaked, looking embarrassed, obviously she didn't know what to say either.

"Hello. Ah, well, I just would like to say that Kisshu is talking nonsense. It's not as if I actually ever thought about you even." Pai said.

"Okay." Retasu nodded, not seeming at all insulted by his words. "Do you really just want to study our planet, is that the only reason you're here? I mean, I'm not saying I believe Kisshu-san; just that it must take an awful lot of interest in this place to make you leave your family after you'd only just got back to them… Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that you didn't care about, them..."

"It's alright, I don't really have any purpose in staying with them, obviously I do care a lot about them, but I can easily do so without having to interact with them."

"Oh, you don't seem to ever really talk to people much Pai-san, if you don't mind me saying. You must be a little jealous of the others two, I mean; they have Ichigo and Purin…"

"No, I'm not jealous. And I don't talk to people much because it's pointless doing so."

"Really? I think it's important…do you really not ever feel lonely sometimes?" She blushed, knowing that this was probably an extremely personal question, especially if you were asking somebody like Pai.

"No, I don't."

She didn't know whether she believed him. He probably didn't feel lonely; he seemed to have no need for company other than Kisshu and Taruto. And friendship wasn't that important to everyone.

But then again, he could just have been lying.

* * *

**I've always wondered how their parents knew what to name them…**

**Sorry about the ending, I know it wasn't very good, but I'm tired and determined to finish it tonight, so I'm not gonna wait until tomorrow hen I'm awake!**

**Please review and tell me what you think! ^0^**


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